Music

358 posts

Music

Music to ride around in an old Cadillac Eldorado to

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If you’re like me, there are just some days when you have to throw up your hands and shout, “THAT’S IT, AMERICA. I AM FUCKING DONE WITH YOU.” It’s a tempting emotion.

Here’s my solution: In times like this, I like to remember some of the mind-explodingly awesome shit that America produces. I defy anyone to ride around the streets of any American city in an old Cadillac while blasting these tunes and not feel pretty goddamn good about the U.S.A. Look, I love other countries. I love the French. They make delicious foods with goose livers, and they gave us Zinedine Zidane. But there’s just something special about the soul, funk and R&B music that came out of Memphis, Detroit, Philadelphia, St. Louis and other depressing/awesome places in the 60s and 70s.

Here are some vintage tunes from my secret stash. I tried to pick stuff that’s a bit more obscure, since by now everyone has heard the Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind and Fire. Take a listen.


And OLDY with that great Memphis beat. Every band ever should be forced at gunpoint to have a brass section. Also, the “horse” dance looks a lot like some of the Soul Train Line dances you saw in the 70s. Ahead of their time!


This song appeared in a slightly different version (without the handclaps, I think) on Herbie’s 1976 album “Secrets,” which is fucking amazing by the way. This song spends what feels like half an hour building upward in intensity before breaking into a disco-y, robotic space music with a talk box. Herbie is my hero.


“Don’t Take My Kindness for Weakness” by The Soul Children. The singing on this cut is just so great and full of soul. I love soul songs that come with that edge.


Fuck the cowbell. Hammond organ. Needs more Hammond B3 organ. Also, this song has one of those 70s bass lines that sounds like it wants to stab a baby dolphin in the eye.


“A Possibility Back Home” by Wanda Robinson. Another vicious cut with some nice jazz flute and great Afro-centric poetry spoken over top. You can tell Erykah Badu was down for this joint.


Albert King is really known for being a blues virtuoso but he made a great foray into funk. Also, the relationship between a blues musician and his instrument is fascinating so I love this stomping little love song for his guitar.


Baby Huey, a singer from St. Louis, died after releasing only one album but it was a really great album that is well-remembered by the old school cats. I don’t know what it is about this jam, but his voice just cuts through me like a knife.


The Dramatics were a huge name in the 60s and 70s but for some reason they haven’t stayed on the radar like some other bands have (Earth, Wind and Fire; Kool and the Gang, etc.). This song was used at the very beginning of “Wattstax,” the great concert film.


Some young hippity-hopper named Doctor Dre (or something) sampled this jam from Leon Haywood. When the tempo picks up at the 1:00 mark, and then mellows out again 30 seconds later, you know you’re in for a ride. If Beethoven lived in Memphis in 1972, this is probably the music he would make.

Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson, 1955-2010

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Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson

Peter Christopherson died today. He was a founding member of several seminal industrial / avant-garde groups of the 70’s and 80’s, including Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and Coil.

If I were to choose just one band that I would be forced to listen to for all eternity, to the exclusion of all else, I would choose Coil. They started out making very harsh industrial music in the mid-80’s, influenced as they were by the AIDS epidemic that was killing so many of the band’s friends. Into the 90’s and ’00s the band started experimenting with acid house and neo-folk, and were heavily invested in a stark sort of dark ambience by the time of Jhonn Balance’s death and the dissolution of the band. I keep my set of Ape of Naples vinyl away from everything else on my mantle because it is something approaching a sacred object to me.

Everything that Sleazy participated in, from TG all the way up to Threshold Houseboys Choir (his de facto solo project), was brilliant, and his music was changing and evolving throughout his career. I was looking forward to more decades of beautiful music from Sleazy, but sadly he has been taken from us too soon. I haven’t been this devastated over the death of an artist since Jhonn Balance, the other half of Coil, fell from his balcony to his death in 2004.

I was meaning to send Sleazy an email — he apparently would respond in full to every fan email he receieved and have extended conversations with writers – but somehow I slept on that and now I’m obviously kicking myself pretty hard. RIP.

The Quietus has a brief remembrance from Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti here. No word as yet from Genesis P. Orridge, who left the reconstituted TG a few weeks ago.

Coil – Who\’ll Fall?

Come with us now on a journey through time and space

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I don’t just surf the internet, I travel it. One second I’m looking up Jude Law’s IMDB profile and the next I find myself reserving a book at the library on religious asceticism in the Middle Ages.

My travels have a soundtrack that is just as hyperkinetic in its apparent lack of theme. I make lousy mix-tapes because of this.

This was my most recent collision of internet searching and music:

I can’t upload the video by any method, so go to the link at Buzzfeed and watch it. It’s worth it. I promise.
(Edit: FIXED! ~BMCFC)

Karaoke Rules?

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So imagine, hypothetically, that you just started writing on a blog with a bunch of people that you barely know.  It would probably be pretty similar to singing Karaoke with your co-workers, right?  A collaborative endeavor, where you are feeling each other out and you will see each other again tomorrow, but the interactions are mediated, and it’s not like you are likely to really tell someone else how you really feel.

How much is too much?

As with Karaoke, it’s a fine balance.  Start posting a lot more than everyone else?  You’re a mic hog.  Everyone will secretly wish that you would just go home.  Post too little?  Well now the party is just going to suck. And you know what?  It will be your fault.  Plus, you will force them to pick up the slack, turning them into mic hogs!

Song selection matters

Yeah, I love Steve Reich too, but just because you somehow found a Karaoke Bar with Different Trains Part I doesn’t mean that you should find yourself murmuring “fastest train” and “From New York to Los Angeles” into a microphone.  We are all busy; we could be anywhere. Make it fun.

Different Trains Part I

Drinking!

Do it.  Actually, this one is pretty simple.

Experiment

Sure, everyone says that you should bang out your “go to” songs.  But this is wrong.  And boring.  If I wanted to listen to a perfect version of Midnight at the Oasis, I’d ring up Maria Muldaur. I can’t imagine she’s very busy.  (This is how it’s done!) Nope.  I want to hear you try something new and crazy.  I want to laugh (and drink).  Something you are familiar with in the middle of the evening is fine, but you should be pushing yourself.  Give me something new!

…but not too much

But look, if you have only heard the chorus to a song, don’t sing it.  If you don’t know anything about the subject, don’t make me read about it.  Unless it’s really funny.  Then it’s okay again.

Whatever you do, don’t start with a defense of anonymity and then a musing on blog-sharing etiquette.  That’s like leading off with I Will Remember You and Sweet Caroline.  What kind of loser are you anyway?